The Time-Traveler's Journey to Bitcoin Mining: A Tale Across Mining Eras

In the hot and bustling city of Lagos, where cars honk filled the air and merged with hurried footsteps, lived Adebola, an unassuming tech enthusiast. Adebola spends a considerable chunk of his days with the hum of his laptop, exploring the digital world, fueled by the relentless curiosity for today's technology's mysteries.

Today was no different from any other day, but something interesting happened. Adebola, sitting comfortably in his worn-out armchair, was on his smartphone and came across articles that talked about Bitcoin mining. While on his phone, he clicked on a pop-up that promised to unravel the secrets of  Bitcoin mining. Little did he know that this pop-up wasn't a mere tutorial but rather a portal that defied the boundaries of time and space.

And Zapped! A sudden surge of energy came from his phone, pulling him into this captivating journey across time we are about to take.

Each Bitcoin mining era Adebola will explore will talk briefs on the various innovations and milestones that have shaped the evolution of Bitcoin mining.

The Genesis Block (2009-2011)

Adebola landed on January 3, 2009, The day that changed everything. He sees a couple of people working on their CPUs, and what he assumes is the mining process taking place.

Their CPU-powered computers hummed and vibrated in the background. However, Adebola couldn’t see their faces as the soft glow of the computer screens illuminated them. He can hear them talk about how they first mined Bitcoin's genesis block (block number 0) using regular computer processors and how this rewarded them with 50 bitcoins. This was done by Satoshi Nakamoto (almost certainly a pseudonym). Also, interestingly embedded in this genesis BTC block was the text: The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on the brink of the second bailout for banks. This text, however, refers to the Bitcoin Whitepaper published on January 3, 2009.

Question:  Why was Nakamoto able to mine with just a simple computer? They were literally the only ones in the Bitcoin network. So, a simple CPU device could handle the computational power needed.

Intrigued by this, Adebola tried to ask one of the women in the room a question. But all of a sudden, before he could, he was zapped into another room. He looked at his watch, and the time was 12:35 AM. He sees a young Laszlo Hanyecz, a Floridian programmer, on his laptop navigating a forum. He was trying to buy 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC on May 18, 2010.

For context, The pizzas were worth around $25, and Bitcoin was worth less than 8 cents back then.

This was the first transaction with Bitcoin; the day will later be known as Bitcoin Pizza Day. This also led to the appreciation of Bitcoin to 8 cents later in July and 10 cents later in October.

Right before Adebola could say Damn! He got zapped into….

The GPU Revolution (2011-2013)

Adebola wakes up in Orlando, Florida. He looks up and sees "BitPay" boldly written on the banner. He sees some young men in shorts and shirts getting into a room. I guess there is a meeting happening. He follows them. Discussion about their new milestone of 10,000 merchants is taking place and what this means for BitPay. They also discuss how much funds are left from the $2 million raised in May via the Founders Fund.

One of the men in the room, deeply engrossed in the discussion, is taking notes. He's jotting down something about Nakamoto's mysterious disappearance and how he is rumored to have mined about 1 million bitcoins before handing the project to developer Gavin Andresen.

Another interesting thing they were talking about is the Bitcoin halving. When Bitcoin was first mined in 2009, a block would earn 50 BTC. Later, that was halved to 25 BTC (In 2012), 12.5 BTC (2016), and 6.25 BTC (2020). Why? That is because Bitcoin has a capped supply of 21 million coins. So halving happens every 4 years or after every 210,000 blocks mined. The next one should take place in 2024. The whole idea behind the Bitcoin halving is to control the supply of new Bitcoin and manage any inflation.

He tried to pick up the note and well got zapped again.

Adebola finds himself in someone's basement. He isn’t quite sure who, however he can see a young lady walking down the stairs. She switched on the light, and he was amazed at the sight. It is a technological renaissance. Computers with GPUs and parallel processing capabilities are lined up. This must be the GPUs era; GPUs were the preferred mining hardware at some point. He had just read about this before he started his time journey. In this era, mining pools flourished, allowing miners to share success and create communities like Mining City.

He hears another voice coming down the stairs, seemingly asking about exploring the new field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) tech and how they are much faster than GPUs, but he trips. As soon as the coffee was about to spill on Adebola, his reflexes kicked in. He used his hand to shield his face to prevent the scalding liquid from pouring on him, but luckily, he got zapped.

Question: why GPUs? GPUs were better optimized and great for parallel computing simple mathematical operations (like mining). This is much better than CPUs. Also, remember that new coins like XRP are popping up in this era, and new miners are now competing among themselves on the Bitcoin network.

The ASIC Age (2013-Present)

As Adebola carefully withdrew his hands, he was gripped by the realization that he was in a different place. From the writing on the wall, he seems to be in China.

The Television in the room is luckily on CNN. The headline reads, "China-based computer hardware manufacturer Canaan Creative released the first set of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for bitcoin mining."  From the news, this new technology outperforms GPUs and CPUs, revolutionizes the mining landscape, and increases the Bitcoin network's hash rate. They were built just for mining, and their chip technology has dramatically decreased in size—from 130 nm in 2013 to 7 nm in 2020. 

He sees some documents on the table and tries to pick them up and get zapped again.

This time, Adebola sees himself in an office in 2021. The name on the desk reads “Mark Zalan,” and some documents are named “GoMining.” In an attempt to pick up these documents, Adebola gets zapped, and this time, he is…

Back to Reality (Present)

He is back in his room. Awakened by the loud noise of the passing cars and heavy traffic outside the window. Damn! The light also went off, plunging his room into an inky blackness. It had finally dawned on him that he was back from his trip.

Still curious, he picks up his laptop and searches for GoMining. He learns about how they are making Bitcoin mining more accessible to all through NFTs and the Liquid Bitcoin Hashrate (LBH) protocol. Thus, he can join the mining industry without buying and maintaining any hardware; he can mine using GoMining’s Bitcoin-mining equipment at their data center.

Question: But How? By exploring their NFT mining model. You buy some NFTs (a unique token that gives one the right to own a digital asset- pictures, videos, game characters, or music- with the digital space) using the GoMining token (GMT).

Having satisfied his curiosity with a thorough web search, Adebola navigates to the Play Store and taps the download button to download the GoMining application.

While he waits, he remembers the Pizza forum discussion from Laszlo's era. He scrolled through, thought about his trip, and laughed as he read the comments. People were arguing about how the 10,000 BTC was small for the 2 pizzas Laszlo wanted. If only they knew how much 10,000 BTC would be worth right now, Adebola thought. Right before he closed the page, he spotted and read the last comment: "It is so remarkable how far this economy has progressed in such a short time; this breaks every record that I can think of."

He looks back at his phone, opens the app, and starts onboarding as he anticipates the new mysteries he is about to begin within GoMining’s universe.

Learn more: You can join the community and learn more about GoMining’s project from their website. You can buy their GMT token using this Binance: Where & How to Buy Gomining (GMT) Guide.